Like this:

April is turning out to be a month of big changes for me and the month is still young…

a week or so ago I had my hair cut and donated fifteen inches to a good cause (I have donated hair in the past but this time around I learned how much it costs to make a human hair wig confirming that monetary donations are very much needed as well)…

for the first time in my life I have braces and what an adventure that is going to be for the next year or so…

late last year we had some work done to reduce the size of part of our herbaceous border getting rid of wild blackberry and honeysuckle vines to name just a few marauders (I Love them in a wild setting but it wasn’t good that they were choking out so many other plants)…

now we are watching to see what survived the clean out before we do any new planting…

I had fun recently altering vintage spools of silk thread that my always generous friend Carmen shared with our mixed media group using a bit of shredded map, wire, moss, rose ribbon trim and a shiny egg or two for the little chick to sit on and the little boy is from the top of a small valentine candy box that I altered years ago (I created the frame using distressed copper mesh and brads)…

the blue Muscari/Grape Hyacinths are definitely a favorite spring flower of mine ♥ they seem to pop up everywhere…

Like this:

at the end of November we took a little break from home improvements and drove about 2.5 hours southwest toward the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia…

we booked three nights at the beautiful Inn of Old Virginia and stayed in a lovely room in the renovated barn where some of the exposed beams date back to Civil War times…

there were some beautiful sunrise views from our balcony…

breakfasts at the inn were delicious with such great attention to detail…

it had a relaxing atmosphere with very gracious hosts…

the nearby town of Staunton (pronounced STAN-ten) is known for being the birthplace of Woodrow Wilson who was the 28th president of the U.S… it is home to the American Shakespeare Center with a replica of Shakespeare’s Blackfriars Theatre…

we enjoyed a performance of The 12 Dates of Christmas which was thoroughly entertaining and captivating in the beautiful wooden theatre…

one of the main reasons we chose Staunton was because of a special tea room…we even brought our Traveling Tea Cup along…I could hardly believe there was a REAL thatched cottage in Virginia which reminded us of the thatched cottages in the UK when we visited back in 2013 (photo below)…

that is us standing in front of Anne Hathaway’s real cottage in Stratford-upon-Avon and we stumbled upon Hathaway TEA Rooms there and enjoyed a huge tea for two out in the garden… back to Virginia where we celebrated my 5 December birthday atAnne Hathaway’s Cottage Tea Room (tea for one and Mr Magpie had the Plowman’s Lunch…we shared a pot of Earl Grey)…

such a fun time and I didn’t even get to tell you about our visit to the Frontier Culture Museum…but I’ve kept you so long already…

wishing you a very Happy T Day along with everyone over at Elizabeth’s Altered Book Lover…

each year a couple thousand people try to hike the AT from beginning to end in one season…

only a few hundred “thru-hikers” as they are called manage to finish the entire hike…

we are extremely happy and excited that our thru hiker reached the northern terminus on 2 September and had some fun at the top (his trail name is Deuces so it is special that he completed his quest on 2 September)…

he said this photo was inspired by the Queen’s Guard (you have to imagine the black bearskin hat and red uniform…our boy has a great sense of humor!)…

in this photo you get a better idea of what the weather conditions were like that day (a bit brisk … his trusty backpack has been with him every step of the way)…

you may remember the Snickers photo we took before he packed his food boxes… there is a tradition on the trail that says your last Snickers bar is your trail fortune as there is a word on one side of each bar…

it took lots of planning and preparation not to mention stamina and determination all along the way… we are excited and very happy for Colin… he is camping in Acadia National Park for a few days and will be making his way south to Virginia 🙂

Like this:

on the same day we visited Saint-Paul du Vence on our Best of France tour we also got to spend time in the medieval hill top village of Eze…located between Nice and Monaco…

it is also called “the eagle’s nest” because of how it is perched on a narrow rocky peak overlooking the Mediterranean sea…we opted out of the extra excursion most of our group took to the Fragonard Parfumeur…because strong smells do not agree with me…

that gave us time to walk around town instead…it was not very crowded on that Wednesday in April…

we climbed and clicked photos…

until we rejoined our group for dinner…

the lamp post above was covered in stickers that had the letter “F” on them stuck there by people who had been on the perfume tour in the past (you can click twice on the photo for a closer look)…

we had the Traveling Tea Cup with us and snapped some photos with thoughts of T Stands for Tuesday (you can see the box the tea cup and saucer travel in behind the rail on the left below)… a brochure we brought home had a lovely map which inspired two more pages in my French Travel Journal…

I added a favorite image of young Teodoro even though he is Italian and not French…

along with strips of Florentine paper which added to the medieval feel with touches of gold and blue paint… part of a label from some sparkling wine was the last thing I added to my pages for the Art Journal Journey MAPSchallenge… it may take me awhile to visit everyone because Jim is working on our computer and there seems to be one problem after another 😕 I had to stand on my head to get this to post

the traveling tea cup and I are joining T Stands for Tuesday today with a little trip to Normandy, France…

built in the 11th century the Mont Saint-Michel Abbey Church has been an important pilgrimage destination…

it was exciting for me to return to a place that was magical so many years ago when I stayed there as a solo traveler…

back then before the addition of the bridge high tides would completely cut off traffic…

there are about 3 million visitors annually (even on a Tuesday in April it was crowded)… there are 900 stairs from the bottom to the landing of the nave at the top along with lots of cobblestone streets…

we wished we’d had a little more time there…

good reason to return again one day…

I created two pages in my French Travel Journal using original text from two old books (the postcard lifts up and is from my nine week trip to Europe long ago… I sent a postcard to my parents almost every day)…I was also inspired to create two pages in one of my gesso journals using a vintage map of the abbey on pages I painted black…the ‘tell me everything’ image is a moo card enlarged and printed in black and white…this spread is for the Art Journal Journey MAPS challenge…

I had been playing with this image days before the horrific Orlando shootings… the French calligraphy was from a friend back when I participated in swaps… a dried rose mirrored the rose on the vintage plate… the bee is painted tin…

on Friday we drove south for a little less than three hours to spend the weekend with him in Waynesboro, Virginia…he decided to take a zero day/day off on Saturday to recharge his battery spending time with us and doing some laundry… loading up on carbs and enjoying some nice hot baths/showers too (his Dad even gave him one of his famous foot massages)…

most days on the trail he hikes 20+ miles and even clocked in 31 miles a day or two burning lots and lots of calories in the process (we have never seen him eat so much!!!)…

we enjoyed hearing about his life on the trail and got to meet some of the hikers that seemed to pop up all around town…

the Edelweiss Restaurant was a favorite of ours on the way back and forth from Virginia Tech when Colin was going to school there… right after I explained how special the song EDELWEISS is because it was the wedding song I walked down the aisle to we stepped into the restaurant and guess what that gentleman in lederhosen was playing on his accordion ♥

Waynesboro really lives up to their city motto of Hospitality in the Valley by offering free rides from the AT into town with everyone being very friendly and gracious (they maintain a volunteer calling list to provide rides to hikers all around town)…

by Sunday morning he was itching to get back on the trail so he enjoyed a last big all you can eat breakfast at the hotel and we bid him Auf Wiedersehen after a quick Traveling Tea Cup photo (pinkies in the air)…

Carcassonne is a beautiful fortified French town and a UNESCO World Heritage site…

during the 3rd century A.D. a curtain wall was built and parts remain today…

building began in the 12th and 13th centuries of “La Cité” as it is also called with 53 towers strung together by two enormous concentric walls…

here is a UNESCO quote about this ancient walled “city”:

“Since the pre-Roman period, a fortified settlement has existed on the hill where Carcassonne now stands. In its present form it is an outstanding example of a medieval fortified town, with its massive defences encircling the castle and the surrounding buildings, its streets and its fine Gothic cathedral. Carcassonne is also of exceptional importance because of the lengthy restoration campaign undertaken by Viollet-le-Duc, one of the founders of the modern science of conservation.”

we were excited that there was a planned overnight stay within the ancient walls…

and the traveling tea cup had a nice view from our second story window…

at night the fortress took on another kind of charm…

the next day we were headed to the Midi-Pyrénées region in southwest France to visit Lourdes…

getting to visit Monet’s Garden was one of the reasons we decided on Trafalgar’s BEST OF FRANCE tour (we can not speak highly enough of our brilliant tour director Krista Taylor and great coach driver Francis and thank them so very much for a memorable journey through France)…

we visited on a Wednesday and there were quite a few people there…

such a beautiful place both inside and out…

we can only imagine how crowded the gardens would be later in the season with the parade of flowers that never ends…

standing on the Japanese bridge even without water lilies blooming was a dream come true (I wanted to bring my paper parasol but it didn’t fit in the suitcase so my fold up Monet’s Garden umbrella had to do)…we lingered a little longer and then had a bite of lunch in the village under a bright red sunbrella where we also visited a cute boutique for some cards and a slice of berry tarte…

we were delighted by the precious rabbit hopping freely around the garden…

leaving the village of Giverny and walking back to our coach I spotted a great bird refuge sign that inspired me to create a page in my French Travel Journey linking it to Art Journal Journey for their JOURNEYS theme…Erika couldn’t have picked a more inspiring theme this month as it has really helped me keep busy working in my travel journal trying to preserve some memories…(French text, heavy gesso, pan pastels, French bird refuge sign photo, used tea bag, pressed Virginia flowers)

Love Quote

"the 'L' in Love should be capitalized" ~♥~Patty Szymkowicz .....
Virginia, USA

*Copyright = A FRIENDLY REMINDER TO PLAY NICE*

I try to give credit where credit is due. Please do not use any images or text from my Magpie's Nest Blog without my permission.
I do not mind being pinned on Pinterest if you link back to the item on my blog. Thank you

~*~ Patty

you can contact me at:
PatriziaSzymkowicz (at) gmail.com

Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.